Seat-cover package



Oct. 16', 1945. L. CLARK 2,387,059

SEAT-COVER PACKAGE Original Filed 'July 14, 1942 Patentecl Oct. 16, 1945 SEAT-COVER PACKAGE Louis Clark, Pomona, Calif., assignor to Protecto Products Co. Inc., Pomona, Calif., a corporation of California Original application July 14, 1942, Serial No.

450,839. Divided and this application December 10, 1943, Serial No. 513,688

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a seat-cover package, which was disclosed in my prior application Serial No. 450,839, filed July 14, 1942, which has matured into Patent No. 2,343,277, for Combined package and holder, and the present application is a division of that application.

This part of the invention concerns the form of the package, including the envelope and the pack of seat-covers within the same.

In the prior invention and in the prior application, the invention consisted in th co-ordinated form and construction of the package and the holder. It was the practice formerly to place these packages in holders fastened on the wall in an upright position, and they were inserted into the holder through the top, a simple cover being laid over the opening afterward. However, dishonest persons frequently removed the entire package. My former invention covered in my prior application involved the idea of having the holder present an opening in its front face, through which a package of special form could be introduced and after being introduced it could only be removed with considerable difficulty,

thereby overcoming the danger from theft. In

order to facilitate the introduction of the package into the forward opening, and also in order to give other advantages to the package, a tapered form of package has been devised to assist in avoiding theft, and also to assist in enabling the pack of seat-covers to function properly when being removed one at a time through the front opening of the holder.

While the invention is capable of application in dlfierent situations, in the present specification it is described as applied to a, seat-cover package.

One of the objects of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a package having an envelope so constructed as to facilitate-its introduction into a front opening of a holder, such as described.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the forward wall of the holder and the forward wall of the package, have registering openings through which the seat-covers within the package can be reached, so that they can be removed one at a time by the users. As the seat-covers are removed and the number of seat-covers remaining in the package becomes reduced, there is a tendency for them to sag down inside the package, and this may interfere with the efficient removal of the foremost seat-covers one at a time. One of the objects of this invention is to overcome this difi'iculty and to provide a package of improved form, which will operate to maintain all of the seat-covers that are remaining in the package, in an upright position until they are all used.

A further object of the invention is to provide an envelope of improved construction, to be used as a container for seat-covers; also to provide a blank of simple form from which an envelope for seat-covers or the like, can be readily formed.

Further objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combination of parts to be described hereinafter, all of which contribute to produce an efficient seat-cover package.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a holder with a seat-cover package held within the same, said holder and package being constructed in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section upon an enlarged scale, taken about on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, but indicating the package partially introduced into the holder.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. '2, but showing the package completely introduced into the holder and held therein. This View shows the upper portion of the envelope of the package broken away.

Fig. 4 is a plan of a blank illustrating a form for the same that I prefer to use in constructing the envelope of the package.

Fig. 5 is an edge view, illustrating the way the seat-covers are folded before the pack is inserted in the envelope.

Referring more particularly to the parts, I indicates a holder preferably constructed of wood or of similar material. This holder includes a substantially rectangular frame 2 which, if desired, at its upper side may be formed with beveled or inclined corners 3 (see Fig. 1) This frame includes a bottom bar 4, and the outer side of the frame is provided with a bottom cross bar 5 which projects upwardly at its upper edge above the upper face of the bottom bar t so as to form a flange or shoulder 6 at this point, and extending completely across at the lower edge of the receiving opening I through which the package 8 is to be introduced. The forward side of the holder also includes a forward wall or face plate 9 in which a delivery opening ill is formed. Through this opening the seat-covers may be withdrawn. The opening 10 may have curved edges I l at its ends.

The package includes an envelope M in which the seat-covers are carried in a pack 15, and the foremost seat-cover l6 of this pack is exposed to view through an opening I! in the forward wall H! of the envelope.

The envelope M is preferably formed of cardboard or similar material, which should be flexible enough to enable the package to be introduced through the opening I and shoved upwardly into the pocket I9 that is formed adjacent to the surface of the wall 20 to wh ch the holder may be attached. In order to facilitate this operation, the envelope is preferably constructed so that it has a wide butt end 2| at its lower end, and a thin edge 22 at its upper end, and the thickness of this envelope tapers from the butt end gradually to the thin end preferably as indicated inFig; 3;

In Fig. 2 I illustrate the correlation of the package and the holder, which enables the package-to be introduced through the opening I and shoved upwardly into the pocket I9. In doing this the package may bend at an intermediate transverse line as the forward wall of the envelope rides upwardly at the upper edge of the opening 7'. This upward movement continues until the butt end 2| arrives at the flange '6, whereupon the lower end of the package is forced inwardly over the flange 6 and permitted to drop down onto the upper face of the bottom bar 4, so as to assume the position indicated in Fig. 3. At this time the upper portion of the side edges of the envelope will .be located back of the front wall beyond the curved ends I I so as to make it difiicult, if not impossible, for a thief to pull the upper portion of the package through the opening Ill.

The envelope I4 of the package may be constructed in any manner desired to give it the up wardly tapering form that enables it to cooperate With the holder to hold itself unremovably in the holder. However, I prefer to construct the envelope from a blank having substantially the characteristics illustrated in Fig. 4. This blank includes a main panel 23 which is to form the fordisposed substantially at right angles to the panel 49 23 to form the end walls of the envelope.

Adjacent the wide ends of the end extensions 24 a bottom extension 28 is formed integral with the adjacent edge of the panel 23, and this bottom extension is connected through a scored line to a flap 30, which flap is to form the back wall of the completed envelope. The upper end of the panel 23 is formed with inclined score lines 3| to enable the completed envelope to fit into the beveled corners 3 of the holder, and beyond each inclined edge 3! an integral projecting tongue 32 is formed, each tongue havin a central slit 33 and side barbs 33a. This enables the tongue 32 to interlock with a corresponding slot 331) and envelop a pack I of seat-covers in the manner indicated in Fig. 3.

The side flaps 25 and the tongue 32 operate as tucks folding against the inner face of the back wall or flap 30 in the completed envelope.

By leaving the folding elements of the envelope flexible attached to each other, as they are through the medium of the tongues 32 and slots 351), the flexibility of the completed envelopeis increased, enabling it to pass more readily into its pocket in the holder. This also reduces the expense of making them. It is obvious that the holder can be itself provided with a back Wall attached to it, in which case the holder need not be attached to the face of a wall to form the pocket for the package.

One of the advantages of employing the tapered construction for the envelope involving the small thickness at the upper edge, is that the seat-covers are usually placed in the envelope in a pack with a fold in them so that there is twice the number of plies of the material'in the lower part of the envelope as compared with the number of plies or thicknesses in the upper end. The envelope has a tuck 34 folding in on a score line 35 that clamps against the upper edge of the pack, and held against the back wall by a seal 36; By having the envelope thin at its upper edge, and clamping the upper edges of the covers in this way, the covers will be suspended toward their upper edges until substantially the last seat-cover is pulled out of the envelope. If it were not for this feature, after a considerable number of seat-covers have been removed from the pack, the remainder of the pack Will sat; down and fail to present the forward seat-cover of the pack in the proper position to be pulled out through the delivery opening I'I. lustrates one of the folded seat-covers.

Many other embodiments of the invention may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A package of seat covers comprising: an envelope including back and front members joined together at their upper extremities to form the apex of a wedge, a bottom member interposed between the lower edges of said back and front members to form the base of said wedge, triangular edge members completing said envelope, said front member having a slot therein located approximately one-third the height of said front member from said apex end, and tab elements diverging from the upper corners of said front member, and adapted to be folded into converging relation over said back member, there being slits in said back member to accommodate the extremities of said tab elements; and individually folded seat-covers each forming a long flap and a short flap proportioned'to form when stacked a wedge-shaped pack conforming to the taper of said envelope.

2. A package of seat-covers comprising an envelope having front and rear Walls which converge from a lower base end in the direction of an upper edge and forming a container substantially triangular in transverse vertical cross-section, said front wall having a horizontal, elongated opening formed therein substantially below said upper edge, and a pack of seat-covers within said envelope, each seat-cover being individually-folded so that it has a short flap and a contiguous long flap and so that the folded edge is located at the lower end of the pack, the short flap of the foremost seat-cover in said pack being adjacent said front wall and said pack occupying said envelope so that the folded edges of said sheets are located adjacent said base end, whereby the thickness of the material of the seat-covers at the bottom of the pack is double that at the top, the converging front and rear walls of said Fig. 5 ilenvelope actin upon the upper portions of the long flaps of said seat-covers to press said portions together to compensate for the reduction in the thickness of the material of the seat-covers at the top of the envelope and in so doing support the seat-covers in an upright position in such a manner as to prevent them from sagging in said envelope and thereby insure their proper withdrawal as the pack is depleted.

LOUIS CLARK. 

